After a failed terrorist attack on a Detroit bound plane this past Christmas, security measures around the world are being tightened in response to Washington's demands. Canada is no exception to this and the government has stated that within the next month all major airports will be outfitted with full body scanners.

 

Due to the nature of the scan however - a 3-D image of a person's form underneath their clothes is produced - concerns have been raised ranging from human rights and privacy concerns , to child pornography laws (an exemption for minors has since been declared). Where and how these images are being viewed and stored has been a point of contention for many.

 

Canada has stated that the images will not be stored given that if anything is picked up by the scan, they already have the suspect and therefore do not need the image. As for who is viewing the images, the Dutch have stated they have a software scanning program so that no human will need to see the images at all. As far as Canada is concerned however, there will be an employee in a closed room viewing the images who never sees the passengers and an employee operating the scanner who never sees the images.

 

The EU is currently divided on this issue and while Britain's Gordon Brown and the Netherlands are supporting the implementation of such technologies, the same cannot be said for all EU nations. The United States has had scanners operating in select airports previously, and are now pushing the implementation of such technologies in other countries in an attempt to catch any and all terrorist attacks before they reach the plane.